It’s Official! 24th Street District is Calle 24

Mission District leaders and downtown officials inaugurated the Calle 24 District today at Harrison and 24th streets in the Mission.

Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía has called Calle 24 “a little Macondo, where you can find sugared-skulls, exiled poets and colonels who fought in losing wars.”

“Latinos in San Francisco have provided a grounding and a sense of place for cross-cultural and artistic exchange, partnership, collaboration, and dialogue, resulting in artistic and social justice movements that have influenced and pushed the rest of our nation to extend its own thinking, social boundaries, and its related practices,” said Lorraine Garcia-Nakata, an artist and cultural specialist from the American Latino Museum.

“There are many of us here who owe our artistic and cultural footing to this part of the city, and I mean that,” she added.

The district is bounded by 22nd and Cesar Chavez streets and Potrero and Mission streets. Outside of these boundaries it will also include La Raza Park, Precita Park and the Mission Cultural Center.

The resolution establishing the district offers a sweeping history of Latinos in the Mission, beginning in the 1930s but “already established nearly a century before.”

The district became a destination for Latinos from all over Latin America after World War II and the Central American civil wars triggered a second influx. During this time, the 16th Street BART plaza became known as Plaza Martí “after Salvadoran leftist leader Farabundo Martí and the 24th Street plaza was known as Plaza Sandino after the Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto Cesar Sandino.

Within the district, Latino businesses, art institutions and art thrived.

As a special cultural district, the Planning Commission will have to take Calle24’s Latino cultural history and make decisions that preserve it.

The teeth behind this ‘movida política’ is us Latinoamericanos living in the USA who will continue to thrive due to our blood, sweat and tears not to speak of our ingenuity, diversity, ‘gracia y pasión’. The sky is the limit with with ‘ganas’ ’cause ¡Sí se puede, hermanos!

I especially like the worried looking pose in the photo of the “Local’s” franchise owner Yaron Milgrom. Appropriating the term “local’s” and using it to name businesses that strictly exclude long time residents based on color or income, is indeed quite worrisome.

The owner of Locals has nothing to worry about. His businesses are always packed with waiting lines to the cafe. Now if only the ones supposedly concerned about the changes in the neighborhood would make the same kind of improvements, commitment to the area. Before Mr Migrom & others like him came along, this stretch was blighted, run down.

only one thing will preserve mission district businesses and cultural entities, and it is not by creating a “cultural district” or “special use”. it is by their having a strong customer base that supports their businesses financially. that is their only hope for survival. no matter how iconic or beloved if they do not serve the community as it now exists they will cease to exist. that is true of any business in any neighborhood.

Why on earth is Precita Park in Bernal Heights, south of Cesar Chavez included? It’s not part of the Mission, and not rationally a part of Calle 24. Why should lower 24th Street in the Mission control anything about Precita Park and Bernal Heights?

Point Mike at the keyboard and one of the same five answers spews out.

The point of this subthread is that the Mission planned for Bernal. When Bernal complained, Mission’s claims on Bernal were slated to be repealed. Would that the same courtesy were extended by Bernal residents to the Mission.

Tree of Life is a group exhibition that celebrates the rich cultural diversity and assorted art styles found at Creativity Explored. The title of the show references the universal image of the “Tree of Life,” which manifests in folklore, mythology, and world religions. The “Tree of Life” is globally known by many different names, for example, The Cosmic Tree, The Holy Tree, Ydryssil, the Bhodi Tree, and The Tree of...